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The Deceptive Salary of Doctors

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The Deceptive Salary of Doctors

Most people believe that high school teachers don’t make enough money, and few believe that doctors should make more. Believe it or not, doctors make 3 cents less per hour than high school teachers over the course of their career.

3: Residency
• 80 hours/week (that’s 2 full-time jobs)
• 50 weeks/year
• 3 years minimum up to 7 years (the first year is known as an internship)
= 12,000 – 28,000 hours
Residencies vary in length depending on the specialty

4: US Medical Licensing Exam
Pass all three parts of the US Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE)

5: Board Certified Specialist
Some additional steps and training are required to become board certified in a specialty.

For instance, to become…

A doctor in internal medicine you must:
• Graduate college with a Bachelor’s degree
• Graduate from medical school
• Pass all three USMLEs
• Take part in a 3-yr residency program
• Pass an internal medicine board exam
Total training/study time: 33,760 hours

A doctor in thoracic surgery you must:
• Graduate college with a Bachelor’s degree
• Graduate from medical school
• Pass all three USMLEs
• Take part in a 5-yr general surgery residency
• Take part in a 2-yr thoracic surgery fellowship
• Pass a thoracic surgery board exam
Total training/study time: 49,760 hours

Doctors spend an average of 40,000 hours training. That’s equivalent to 20 years of full-time work.

For the rest of their career, doctors work an average of 59.6 hours/week.

The average doctor’s career ends at 65. If they finish their residency at 29, they’ll spend 36 years working almost 1 ½ times more than most other Americans.

In other words, it would normally take 54 years to do the work that doctors do in 36.

Doctors often graduate medical school with well over $300,000 of student loan debt.

Residency
It would cost a doctor $1,753 per month ($21,037 yearly) just to pay the interest on a $300,000 loan. That’s almost half of a doctors average net residency income of $50,000.

So, for a doctor practicing internal medicine to forbear a $300,000 loan for three years during residency, then repay that loan for 20 years, it would result in an overall loan cost of $687,360. That’s $34,368 per year for 20 years.

Career
U.S. tax code allows deductions of up to $2,500 per year for student loan repayment—but that phases out for incomes between $115,000 and $145,000.
The average US doctor’s salary: $202,948
The average net income after a 28% federal tax rate: $146,123
After non-deductible student loan payments: $111,755

Find their lifetime net income:
(Net Annual Income * Years Worked) + (Residency Income* Years in Residency) – (Student Loan Debt)
• Take the average net annual income ($146,123) and multiply by the average number years worked (36) =
$5,260,428
• Add the average net residency income ($50,000) and multiply by the number of residency years (3) =
$150,000
• Subtract the total average cost of student debt = $687,360

• Lifetime net income = $4,723,068

Find their lifetime hours worked:
(Average Hours Worked Per Week x Weeks Worked Per Year x Years Worked) + (Hours Spent Training)
• Take the average number of hours worked per week (59.6)
• multiplied by the average number weeks worked per year (48)
• multiplied by the average number number of years worked (36)
• Then add the total number of hours spent training (40,000)
• Lifetime hours worked = 142,989
Divide lifetime net income by lifetime hours worked = $33.03 per hour

– Compared to the average high school teacher –

Find their lifetime net income:
(Net Annual Income * Years Worked) + ( Net Pension Income* Years Received) – (Student Loan Debt)
• Take the average net annual income ($47,113) and multiply by the average number years worked (43) =
$2,025,859
• Add the average net pension income ($35,507) and multiply by the average number of years received (15) =
$532,605
• Subtract the average cost of student debt = $186,072

• Lifetime net income = $2,372,392

Find their lifetime hours worked:
(Average Hours Worked Per Week x Weeks Worked Per Year x Years Worked) + (Hours Spent Training)
• Take the average number of hours worked per week (40)
• multiplied by the average number weeks worked per year (38)
• multiplied by the average number number of years worked (43)
• Then add the total number of hours spent training (6,400)

• Lifetime hours worked = 71,760
Divide lifetime net income by lifetime hours worked = $33.06 per hour… about an apple a day more than a doctor.

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